Wimbledon men's semis set: Federer-Djokovic, Murray-Tsonga

WIMBLEDON, England — After curling in a 102 mph ace to grab a two-set lead 56 minutes into his Wimbledon quarterfinal Wednesday, Roger Federer casually pulled an extra ball from his pocket, strolled to his changeover chair and sipped a drink.

No fist pump. No yell of excitement. No energized jog.

He still had work to do. Motivated by the bitter memory of quarterfinal losses at the All England Club the past two years, six-time champion Federer bullied 26th seed Mikhail Youzhny 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 to reach his record 32nd career Grand Slam semifinal.

"I know I'm playing really well," said Federer, seeded third. "I am aware things are going to get complicated in the next match."

This is the sixth semifinal in the past eight Grand Slams, and 27th meeting overall, for Federer and Djokovic, but their first at Wimbledon. Federer leads 14-12, but Djokovic has won six of their past seven matches, including at the French Open a month ago.

"We never played on grass," Djokovic said, "so I think it's going to be interesting for both of us to see what happens."

The other men's semifinal is No. 4 Andy Murray against No. 5 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Neither has won a Grand Slam title or been to a Wimbledon final.

Murray is trying to become the first British man to earn the trophy since Fred Perry in 1936.

"Subconsciously, I'm probably extremely stressed out right now, but I try not to feel it," he said.

Tsonga, a 2008 Australian Open finalist, got to his second straight Wimbledon semi by defeating Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2. He is 1-5 against Murray.

serena's doubles duty: Serena Williams earned two doubles victories with sister Venus, a day before her singles semifinal against Victoria Azarenka. The sisters completed their second-round match against Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova that started Saturday but was suspended because of rain, winning 3-6, 6-3, 9-7. They returned a few hours later to beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sania Mirza 6-4, 6-3 to move into the quarterfinals.

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